Public Dimensions of a Believer's Life

Rediscovering the Cardinal Virtues

By (author) Monika K. Hellwig

Hardback - £65.00

Publication date:

01 November 2005

Length of book:

176 pages

Publisher

Sheed & Ward

ISBN-13: 9780742550148

In recent American politics, the term OmoralityO has come to be used in a way almost entirely restricted to private family and sexual issues, leaving aside responsibility for immensely consequential decisions about initiating wars, oppressive policies, regressive tax structures, and disregard of the United Nations and international law. Public Dimensions of a BelieverOs Life is about human responsibility in public life and the moral and spiritual factors involved in exercising that responsibility. Monika Hellwig explores the decisions people have to make in human affairs at all levels of social organization, the values that guide these decisions, and the way those values are often apparently in conflict with one another. By looking at major moral issues in the political decisions, actions and failures to act, of the twentieth century in the light of the tradition of the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance), HellwigOs work explores the moral implications of the political life in our own times.
Monika Hellwig brings a deep and broad knowledge of the Catholic Christian tradition, a lifetime of varied experience, and a believer's commitment to challenge all of us about our responsibility for the public dimension of our lives. Her fascinating approach develops each chapter by discussing two related but, at times, opposed concepts (e.g., obedience and discernment, fairness and compassion, tradition and change). The book is challenging, wise, perceptive, and radical in the best sense of the word. I hope it has the widest possible readership and that we readers will accept its call to work for a better human society.